Good fences make good neighbors or so the saying goes. But to maintain a good fence efficiently requires a number of things including sturdy poles, good footings for them, and the ability (at least for non-barbed wire fences) to string wire quickly and conveniently between the poles. Moreover, many fence breaks occur hundred (if not thousands) of yards away from supplies of wire. The distances involved therefore make it at least inconvenient to return to a shop, barn, garage, depot, etc. to retrieve additional/different wire than that perhaps on hand in the field.
Additionally, fences on many ranches, farms, and other properties run through areas overgrown with, or at least partly overgrown with, brush. The presence of the brush (and/or other wire snagging material) often forces the fence mender to dismount and/or exit their vehicle to manually string the wire through the brushy area. Of course, as the worker strings the wire for the fence (particularly barbed wire) it is also desirable that the worker to tie the wire to the fence posts with wire or other material suitable for that purpose. Working with even these typically shorter strands of “tie” wire can lead to situations in which the brush ensnares the tie wire. In addition, the brush can ensnare or “snag” the wire reels that the worker might be using. These situations naturally lead to frustration on the part of the worker and also to a loss of productivity whenever the worker encounters a problematic area. Fence mending is but a stand in for many projects involving wire in which such situations might arise. For instance, it is often desirable to tie down mattresses, furniture, signs, etc. on top of a vehicle or in a truck bed for transport.
Perhaps, more importantly, the foregoing scenarios illustrates larger issues in that workers operate in many environments in which their wire reels snag on objects in (often) confined spaces. Each time such wire reels snag the workers have to back track enough to clear the snags before re-tracing ground already covered. Moreover, in doing so, the workers many times allow slack to develop in the wire being pulled thereby inviting further entanglements, snags, etc. These and other problems lead to a general loss of productivity and/or efficiency. More specifically, workers in commercial/industrial settings might find themselves pulling wire through crawlways, wire closets, raceways, attics, etc. all of which might be populated with snag-producing protrusions (and/or other traps for the wire and/or the wire reel).
Another aspect of wire pulling involves the desire to quickly change the type of wire used in various phases of certain projects. For instance, in commercial/industrial settings, a particular worker might need to pull wires of varying gauges through one common region (or many regions). With wire reels heretofore available, each time the worker wants to change wire gauges the worker must stop productive work to retrieve and/or change reels to accommodate the next gauge of wire to be pulled. Of course “gauge” is but a proxy in the foregoing scenarios for the many different types, colors, etc. of wire (and other elongated materials such as string, twine, rope, etc.) which a user might want to pull through a given area.